In economics, the term "speculative bubble" refers to a large upward move in an asset's price driven not by the asset's fundamentals—that is, by the earnings derivable from the asset—but rather by mere speculation that someone else will be willing to pay a higher price for it. ███ █████ ████████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ █ ████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ██ █ ████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ███
Intro to Topic ·Speculative bubble
Speculation is when I buy a machine merely because I speculate that someone else is willing to pay more for the machine. If everyone thought like that, it would drive up the price of the machine. Contrast with buying a machine because I expect that the machine can produce goods that will earn a return on my investment.
Original high price of the bulb was rationale. The bulbs produced future generations of bulbs and hence produced a return on investment. It was not just speculation that someone else will be willing to pay even more for the bulb.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis
24.
The passage most strongly supports ███ █████████ ████ ██████ █████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
Question Type
Implied
Other’s perspective
It’s difficult to predict the correct answer just from the question stem, but we know that the correct answer will be something Garber agrees with. Keep in mind Garber’s view as described in P3.
a
If speculative bubbles █████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███████
Not supported. We don’t know Garber’s opinion about the frequency of speculative bubbles. We only know what he thinks about whether the Dutch tulip market was a speculative bubble.
b
Many of the ██████ ██ ███████████ ████████ █████ █████ █████ ████ ████████ ██ ██ █████ ██████ █████ ████████ ███████████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██████
Supported. Garber offers the potential for earnings from selling copies of the original bulb as a reason that the initial purchase at a high price does not have to be irrational. This suggests he thinks people who bought the original bulb could have rationally expected not to lose money as long as they sold copies made from their original bulb.
c
If there is ███ █ ███████████ ██████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████████
Not supported as something Garber would agree with. Garber thinks that if the prices are not irrational, then there’s no speculative bubble. But (C) reverses this relationship. Garber doesn’t have to think that if there’s no speculative bubble, the prices are not irrational. Maybe he could think prices can be irrational for other reasons unrelated to the presence or absence of a speculative bubble.
d
Most people who ████████ ██ █████ █████ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ ███████ ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ████████████
Not supported as something Garber would agree with. We don’t get any evidence of Garber’s thoughts concerning “all” the investments of those who invested in Dutch tulip bulbs. Although we know what he thinks about their investment in Dutch tulip bulbs, this doesn’t constitute evidence of what he thinks about other kinds of investments.
Not supported. Garber thinks Mackay is wrong to believe that the original high prices were irrational. But there’s no evidence Garber thinks Mackay believed the later, low prices were irrational.
Difficulty
58% of people who answer get this correct
This is a very difficult question.
It is slightly harder than the average question in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%149
160
75%170
Analysis
Implied
Other’s perspective
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis
Science
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
2%
153
b
58%
165
c
10%
158
d
11%
159
e
20%
160
Question history
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